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Friday, 13 February 2015

Interview: Huntress

January so far has been brilliant when it came to gigs at my
local venues. Amon Amarth was the one that stood out to me as I wanted to see
them live so desperately since their set at Download 13. When I found Huntress
were playing also, I was just as thrilled, if not more. They played Ministers
Bar in Stoke a while back, and I am glad to see their return. Here, I
interviewing the extremely talented Jill Janus, anyone with a
brain in the metal community will know she is the singer from Huntress as soon
as that name is said. We spent a solid 12 minutes talking about wonderful
things. Also, buy their albums, I can't leave Starbound Beast alone.

~Matthew Clewley

MRD: When you stepped in for Johan for Amon Amarth,
how did that feel to you?

It was really about how we saved the show, I talked to the
boys and yknow there's a real community within the metal world where you've got
each others back, so intially “How do we save the show?”, “How do we do this?”,
so I talked to the guys and they wanted to do an instrumental set, have some
banter inbetween (the songs) and bring up a couple of fans to sing. And then I
left the dressing room and I thought to myself “well, you know I could get
murdered tonight by a bunch of angry Amon Amarth fans!” So fuck it, showbiz!

So how did the fans react, it must have been
positive?

Yeah, I mean when I first went out they opened with 2 songs
and I think they were a bit confused and they didn't see Johan. And after that
I came out and said “Hey guys, sorry. Sweden's at war, so they called their
best warrior in” and they were like “Nooooooo!” but I was like “It's alright,
the show is going to go on!” At first they were a little aprehensive, but as
soon as they got rolling again they really embraced it and then I got to sing
Guardians of Asgard and they lost their shit, it was great.

Are you planning anymore material with Huntress?

Of course, I mean were recording the record right now, we
have taken a tiny break from recording and heading back, so we are using this
(the tour) as a test board for all of our songs. We have had 45 minute sets and
we are doing 4 new songs during that set, and they have been really well
received and the fact that the new songs have had a bigger reaction than the
old ones.

Really?!

Yes! It's positive.

What's so different from the new songs compared
to the old songs?

Well, it's the natural progression of Huntress. The new
songs are a little bit more organic, and they're a little bit catchier.

Do you like catchy songs?

Oh yeah, I love catchy! The project I envision is that I
want to reach out to fans, I want to reach out to a lot more metal fans. I have
a side project...

What is the side project?

I don't really wanna talk about it yet, but lets just say
it's a bit more black metal.

Is it Scandinavian influenced?

I never even talk about it, it's so new, I just do it in
between writing for Huntress. Huntress is pretty much a none stop job, there's
touring and writing and recording for Huntress, but I'm just starting to tap in
this new thing I want to do. Huntress is the main goal, as Huntress gets larger
I feel like I still want to hold onto the roots of underground.

Do you prefer smaller gigs to larger gigs?

Yknow, it varies. We have very little stage room here so the
stage is very intimate, but I prefer a little bit more stage room. What's
brilliant is that Amon Amarth are bringing amazing shows to smaller audiences,
and some people don't get that opportunity to see them, so I like smaller
venues because you do get to interact with the fans and be closer to them.
Larger festivals varies, but I am just really happy to be on this journey and
have all these awesome opportunities coming to us.

When
was the first time you got noticed in the UK?

We started getting press right before our first album came
out, fortunately people were interesting in us and we got press in 2012, even
in 2011 when we dropped out first album so people have always been interested
and curious and we did our first national tour with Lamb of God last year at
this time. That was amazing, yeah.

Were
they one of the best bands you have been with?

Yknow, Lamb of God were really supportive with us and that
was pivotal being another step up and ascending into metal, so Lamb of God are
just monsters. I think our best bill have been Amon Amarth. I think the fans
and everyone that's surrounding us has just been supportive, I'm not saying the
other bands haven't been supportive of us, I just feel like we're very good.
It's really great, we've been doing really well with Amon Amarth and I have
felt really comfortable on this tour, as we know we are figuring shit out more.
We've been on tour more, and were growing up and it's cool.

How
long did it take for you to organise Huntress at the start?

I've been trying to put together this band since I was in
high school, my Pagan beliefs the name Huntress comes from the Goddess of the
hunt so I grew up around nature and I have always wanted to do something like
this and 2006 is when I trademarked the name and then I started searching for
musicians so it took me really about a decade to get this together and get it
all set and done. By 2009, with a 3 year span I was able to find a band called
Professor and I kind of forced them to join forces with me.

So
after a decade it shows how you are committed because it's a really long time.

It is because I was DJing at the time and I was making money
that was going into my musical projects and it was all rock n roll based and it
progressed into metal. This is what I was born to do, there was never any other
purpose for me but to be a vocalist.

When
did you find out that you can sing?

From the time I could fucking talk you haven't stopped. I've
always had a voice, from a very early age I was able to stay on pitch and that
was noticed. When I was 8 years old I started doing professional theatre, and
when I was 13 I was in full blown opera lessons and I was developing a voice
when I was a teen and my vocal coach said “You've got a 4 octave vocal range!”
so then we expanded on that and then started doing soprano parts for opera and
that just turned into winning a scholarship to school in Manhattan and then I
met some gay boys and started doing Night Life, DJing and working the whole
cabaret and the whole burlesque movement in new York and Manhattan and that
kind of led me into a strange realm of night life and it gave me a chance to
meet more people and gain more visibility for Huntress. It has been planned
out, I've seen everything and it's all falling into place just as I imagined.

That's
really interesting, I couldn't picture opera, even though you are operatic,
it's just the fact you went through all that and created something brilliant
like Huntress. It's great listening to the roots of a band, because sometimes
you hear unexpected things.

Yknow opera and classical training was the foundation of my
classical screams and I wouldn't be able to sustain what I do night after
night, I wouldn't have a voice talking to you unless I had that training unless
something is important like someone ever asks me “How do you do this?” with the
variants of your vocal ability where you have a clean vocal approach and going
into vibrato and your screams and you're back and down, it really begins with
that training and I encourage people to do that, to get that classical training
as it is the foundation of screams.

Would
you ever teach people to sing like that, or manage bands like that?

When I was in high school I used to teach people lessons I
started to do it at an early age teaching vocals that was classical and musical based, so I had done that to a very small scale. My vocal coach is
Melissa Cross, and she has a DVD out which many people do and it's called “The Zen of Screaming” and so I started
seeing her in person, so I am not in anyway or willing to arrange that, I mean
Huntress is absolutely number 1 I have no time for anything else. You have to
abandon other ambitions if you really want to achieve your goals so at this
point no, not at all.

What
is the next for Huntress after Amon Amarth and your next album?

We've already written and recording one album a year for the
first 3 years of being a band and that was my vision. So, obviously we're going
to be touring touring touring this year in support of the new album when it
comes out in he summer, and then after that we go back to record the album. I
don't want to push the boys into recording an album a year, it nearly broke the
band up for fucks sake. I'm going to cool it with them, not much, maybe six
months more haha!

You
nearly broke up? Was there too much pressure?

Yknow, it's hard to make money when you're touring non stop
we don't make money, all the money that we make goes back into the band so it's
really hard for anyone to be touring non stop, writing and recording, and we
have a month back at home. I moved everything into storage, I sold my car, I
sold my apartment, I'm kind of a hobo at this point. The other guys aren't
willing to do that as much as me and Blake, and his brother Tyler from Holy
Grail is now playing drums for us, it's really difficult to commit to something
where you're not making money and it can wear on you like “I can't do this
anymore” and it's a lifetime commitment.

Do
you feel exhausted after the month break?

It's very hard for me to sleep, I'm wired in a very
different way. I am so slender to my metabolism is insane, burning constantly I
always want to work constantly because I feel creative, I sleep about 5-6 hours
a night maybe on a good night, I have a lot of energy, so I have got to
remember to relax.